Come a Little Closer
by ayahsad167
Summary: Lawrence decides to take Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella on a two hour ride to an antique convention. Isabella falls asleep, and some pretty interesting things happen while she's snoozing. What's Phineas up to? Phinbella oneshot.


**Lately I've developed a terrible case of writers' block whenever I try to work on my other story, so I took a little break and this oneshot is the result. Not much of a plotline, just Phinbella fluff. Beta'd by PianoMan5.**

**~Disclaimer~**

**Don't own PnF**

**I never have, never will**

**It's really a shame.**

* * *

"Are you ready to go, boys?" Lawrence Fletcher shouted from downstairs.

"Just one second!" Phineas yelled back. He finished lacing up his shoe and stood up with a satisfied grin.

"You good to go, Ferb?" Phineas asked his brother. Ferb gave him a thumbs up.

"Well then, looks like we're ready. Isn't this exciting? I can't wait to get to the antique convention!" the redhead said enthusiastically.

_Exciting_ wasn't exactly the word Ferb would've used. Sure, going along with his dad on his work related trips was always fun, but sometimes he wished the locations his dad had to travel to weren't so far away. This current excursion was a two hour car ride from Danville, and to top it all off, the convention began at seven o'clock in the morning. This meant that his dad had to leave early if he wanted to get there on time, which was why Phineas and himself were currently awake at close to five A.M., about to go on a road trip.

The women of the family had decided to stay behind, Linda because she had a doctor's appointment to go to, and Candace because "You must think that I'm even crazier than normal if you expect me to wake up before ten!".

But hey, if he had to sacrifice a few hours of sleep to go, than so be it.

Ferb shook himself out of his thoughts, realizing that he had been standing there doing nothing. He started towards the door, but Phineas beat him to it, practically bounding out the room and down the stairs. Ferb wryly grinned. Only his brother could be this hyperactive at five in the morning.

He followed after Phineas (much less energetically) and entered the car, where his dad already sat.

"Well, boys, I think we're all set. I just have to pick up our guest, and then we can hit the road!"

The guest Lawrence was referring to was none other than Isabella. When the girl across the street had heard that they were going on a road trip, she had been ecstatic.

"Would your dad mind if I came along too?" she had said. "I need to get my road trip patch, and this would be the perfect chance!"

Their dad, after clearing it with Ms. Garcia-Shapiro, had welcomed Isabella to come along, though warning her that she would have to squeeze in the back. Isabella confidently assured him that she wouldn't mind.

Ferb had a feeling that the patch wasn't the _only_ reason wanted to come along. He was that spending two hours with Phineas in a confined space had a lot to do with her enthusiasm.

Truth be told, Ferb was rather curious to see what would happen between his brother and Isabella. If he knew Isabella, he was pretty sure that she would do whatever in her power to have Phineas close by her side.

Ferb returned to the present when he heard his father start the car. Lawrence backed out of the driveway and drove all of ten seconds to the Garcia-Shapiro residence, honking the horn to alert Isabella of his presence.

After a few moments Isabella walked out of the house, shouting a goodbye to her mother before climbing into the middle seat of the car.

"Hello, Isabella," Lawrece greeted amiably, "Ready for the trip?"

"You know it, Mr Fletcher!" Isabella said with a weary grin. She turned to her companions. "Hey guys. Whatcha doin'?" It was clear to tell that the girl was tired. There were dark bags under her eyes and she was noticeably less energetic than usual.

"Hey Isabella," Phineas greeted with a bit of a frown. "What's wrong?

You seem kinda tired. Well, discounting the fact that it _is_ really early."

"Yeah, I am. Pinky kept me up late last night, so I didn't get that much sleep."

Phineas frowned. "Aw, that's too bad."

"It's fine, Phineas," Isabella said, smiling at his concern. "I can bear it if it means getting my patch."

"Well, maybe you can sleep on the way," he said optimistically, returning her smile. "Now," he said, turning to his brother, "What were you telling me earlier about your idea, Ferb?"

The two brothers delved into a conversation (Phineas doing most of the actual talking) which involved the pros and cons of water powered batteries. They debated back and forth, Ferb gesticulating very convincingly, until it occurred to Phineas that Isabella was being totally excluded from the conversation.

"So Isabella, what do _you_ think the most efficient process for singling out hydrogen atoms is?" he asked in attempt to include her.

To Phineas' surprise, she didn't respond to his question.

"Isabella?"

Phineas leaned forwards in his seat and looked at her downturned face.

"Wow, looks like she's asleep already. I guess she was really tired. Either that or she was bored to sleep by our conversation. Heh, maybe you should stop blabbering so much, Ferb," Phineas joked.

Said blabbering boy rolled his eyes playfully. "Yes, Phineas, of course, _I'm_ the one who really needs to stop talking so much."

Phineas pretended to be hurt. "Jeez, bro, no need to be so sarcastic. I was joking."

"Oh, dear brother, forgive me. I'm afraid my sense of humor has grown a bit dry in this heat."

Phineas was about to rejoinder when Lawrence interjected from the front.

"Boys, as much as I'm enjoying your banter, you two should tone it down a bit. We do have a sleeping girl in the car, after all."

Phineas and Ferb nodded their agreement, and the conversation lapsed into silence.

After a few minutes of staring out the window and listening to the low hum of the car as it drove on the highway, Phineas was understandably bored. Inevitably, he found his mind wandering. For a while he mulled over an idea that had occurred to him during a chat with Baljeet, and then he remembered a question that he'd been meaning to ask Ferb.

"Hey Ferb," he whispered so he didn't wake Isabella.

Silence.

"Ferb?"

He still didn't respond, so Phineas leaned forward in the seat and looked past Isabella to where his brother was sitting. Judging from the green haired boy's soft breathing pattern and motionless figure, he had fallen asleep as well.

"You too, Ferb?" Phineas murmured. "I guess it's just me and dad now..."

He paused for a moment. "And why am I telling you this while you're asleep?"

Ferb deigned not to respond.

With a sigh, Phineas sat back in his seat again. He checked the digital time display on the front dashboard, and the fact that only 26 minutes had passed since they'd left the house didn't exactly thrill him.

He perused the station wagon for some form of entertainment, when Lo and Behold! He spotted a book on the floor near Ferb. Tilting his head, he made out the title: "The Scarlet Letter".

_Well, it's better than nothing._

He reached for the book, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. As he was leaning for it he accidentally bumped Isabella's shoulder. The Fireside girl slowly fell to the right until her head ended up in Ferb's lap. Unbelievably, both of them still remained asleep through this, Isabella even involuntarily nuzzling Ferb with her head.

Phineas chuckled. "Wow, Isabella, you must be really comft-Ferb-le."

He lifted the girl upright into her normal position, grinning all the while. After she was in her proper place Phineas paused to look at the sleeping cutie.

_I wonder what her reaction would've been if I'd left her there? Haha, I can only-_

Phineas' thoughts were cut off abruptly when he felt something large fall onto his shoulder. Isabella's head.

Phineas was caught off gaurd, insomuch that he continued staring. He was unable to look away from her features, which were less than a few inches away from his own. If Isabella sudden felt the need to open her eyes, she would be greeted with a shocking sight.

After a full minute of inanimacy, he finally regained the ability to think coherently. _Well...this is weird._

Apparently it wasn't that weird, because he still hadn't turned away. Seeing Isabella's features up close was strangely captivating. Disconcerting, but captivating all the same.

_I never noticed how small her nose is. It's so tiny, like a tiny ship on an ocean of face... Wait, what?_

_And her hair...It's so black! Kind of like a midnight color, but more shiny and less overbearing. Hmm...raven black? Ebony? Charco- oh, I know! It's obsidian! It looks just like polished obsi-_

In a flash, Phineas snapped himself out of his reverie. _Wait a second, what am I doing? Why am I sitting here looking at her when I should be moving her back?_

With this thought in mind, he gently moved her head back in place. And as soon as he removed his hands, her head fell onto his shoulder again.

Only this time, she grabbed his arm too.

"Um...Isabella? Are you awake?" Phineas asked quizzically. He peered closely at her, but her eyes were still closed. "Huh. Well, she must be having a crazy dream."

Phineas moved his arm in an attempt to rescue it, but this only caused the sleeping girl to grasp it tighter and bury her face even deeper into his neck. He attempted to free his arm again, but his retry yielded the same results.

Now he was starting to feel a little uncomfortable as he realized how close Isabella was to him. Her thigh was squished up against his, her head buried in his beck, her arms locking his in a vicegrip. They were basically sharing the same seat!

"Wow, Isabella, you must really like my arm." Phineas chuckled softly, a certain note of anxiety creeping into his small laugh.

Once more he tried moving his limb from her grasp, but somehow she managed to squeeze it even tighter!

Phineas' face heated up as he looked around to see if anybody else was aware of his current situation. Ferb was still asleep and his dad wasn't paying attention, so he felt a little relieved.

He turned his attention back to his current predicament, and things hadn't gotten any looser. Every time he tried to pull away Isabella would cling to him like a child clings to a teddy bear.

Up to now Phineas had been delicate with Isabella, hoping not to wake her, but it was now apparent that it was too late for that. He quickly jerked his arm away a bit harder then he would've liked, but it worked and he was finally free. He held his breath as Isabella stirred, and released it once she continued her slumber. He slowly moved Isabella back to her seat and straightened up her head.

Phineas sighed with relief and flopped back in his seat. _That was exhausting! I never would've thought that something like that would wear me out. _His hand drifted to his heart, and he was surprised at how fast it was beating.

_Wow_, he thought with a laugh, _I must be really out of shape if my heart's pounding so hard just because of this._

With a sigh, Phineas turned towards the window. _Well, time to get some rest. Hopefully, when I wake up, we'll be there already._

He breathed deeply, trying to get himself a relaxing mood. Closing his eyes, he pictured himself drifting off to sleep peacefully...

...but he couldn't. For some reason, he felt...not exactly irritated, but it felt like he was missing something.

_Probably just the way I'm laying, _he thought.

Phineas sat back farther. Adjusted the seatbelt. Bundled up a stray shirt and tried using it as a pillow. Adjusted his seatbelt again. And all this did nothing but accentuate his discomfort.

_This is useless._ With a groan of despair Phineas sat up in the seat.

_Why's it suddenly so difficult for me to go sleep? I'm fine any other time! _The redhead tried to think of what could be the source his sudden insomnia, but he came up empty.

_Well, there's no point in fretting about it now, _he thought with resignation. _I'll fall asleep when I fall asleep._

Boredom wasn't something that Phineas usually dealt with, so he had a harder time than most coping with inactivity. After reading a chapter of "The Scarlet Letter" and counting the cars that raced by, he grew so desperate to find something to do that he thought about waking up Ferb and Isabella. The idea was tempting, but he knew that he couldn't deprive them of the very thing he wanted himself.

Phineas' thoughts meandered, and eventually he recalled his earlier 'experience' with Isabella. At the time he had been focused on freeing himself from her sleeping embrace, but now that the whole situation was resolved he thought about the actual contact. It was really weird how strange that whole thing had been. Even though it had been awkward, he couldn't deny that he enjoyed it. In an odd way, her involuntary affection had been _comforting_.

_Wait a second...is _that_ why I feel so restless? It can't be because Isabella isn't close to me...can it?_

This sounded absolutely ridiculous, but Phineas couldn't exactly refute the argument (especially since he had kind of liked being so close to her).

_Well, it's a simple problem... _he glanced at Isabella. _So I guess there's a simple solution._

Gently, so as not to wake her, Phineas hooked his arm around the girl's small shoulders. This action sent a shiver through his bones, and suddenly he was acutely self-conscious. His arm was like a heavy weight around her and he almost lost his resolve, but he managed to convince himself to continue.

_It's all right, the only reason I'm doing this is so I can relax. _Phineas knew that statement was only half the truth, but then again, he had always been an optimist.

With his arm still around the sleeping girl, he slowly shifted her, little by little, until she was sitting right next to him. With a deep exhalation Phineas sat back, his shoulder touching hers, arm around her neck.

His mind was telling him that this was wrong, that Isabella was his friend, that he was taking advantage of her. But for once, he decided to ignore his inner voice of reason. He just felt so complete with Isabella at his side like this, even if she was asleep.

He softly sighed and snuggled a bit closer to Isabella, raising his eyebrows a bit in surprise when she subconsciously did the same. He distantly wondered how his dad and Ferb would react to seeing this, but he pushed the thought aside. He was sure that embarrassment would be in order, but what was embarrassment compared to this.

It was amazing how calm he felt right now. Normally his mind was ablaze with ideas, incorrigible as a tiger in a paper bag. At this moment, though, he couldn't have cared less about his inventions. A car ride with Isabella outweighed the importance of a lot of things. And being teased by his brother certainly was one of them.

He felt his eyelids starting to droop, but he forced them to stay open. Funny how earlier, he had been desperate to fall asleep and now, he was even more desperate to stay awake, not wanting to miss a second of this moment.

But, unfortunately, where his mind said no, his body said yes, and he fell victim to the monster that nobody had ever been able to resist.

~•~•~•~•~

Phineas' eyes snapped open, jolted awake by some distant noise. He looked around bewilderedly before he remembered that he was in the car, not his bedroom back home.

Phineas was right about to fall back asleep when the events from earlier came back to him. He looked hopefully to his right, but was disappointed to find that Isabella wasn't next to him as she had een when he had fallen asleep. In fact, nobody was even in the car besides him. He glanced outside through the window and noted that the car was parked at a rest stop, judging from the gas station and fast food restaurants nearby.

Phineas unbuckled his seat belt and climbed out of the car, wincing a bit as he limped on his sleepy legs. His stomach was starting to make unhappy noises, but he ignored it as he looked for the rest of the occupants on the car. It didn't take a lot of effort to find Ferb, who was leaning against the car with a smirk on his face. His dad and Isabella were nowhere to be found

"Had a good rest?" Ferb asked with mock concern

Phineas heard the teasing undertone and could tell that Ferb knew, as he always did. "Very funny, Ferb. So where'd Dad and Isabella go?"

"Dad's buying some food, and Isabella went to the bathroom." Even Phineas wasn't oblivious enough to miss the emphasis on his friend's name.

"So," continued Ferb, that smirk still firmly implanted on his face, "You and Isabella looked rather comfortable next to each other."

Before Phineas could respond, a certain someone jumped in with her input. "Yes, actually, it was **very **comfortable!"

Phineas started in surprise. "Oh, hey, Isabella. Didn't see you there."

Isabella smiled perkily, and suddenly he got a flashback of him looking at her while she was asleep in the car. He was momentarily tongue tied, so he turned to his father, who was carrying a bag of food to the car. "Need any help?"

"No no, I've got it. Just a few refreshments I picked up for the rest of the test of the trip."

Phineas returned his attention to his friends, his attempt at a distraction having failed. For some reason, Isabella was looking at him expectantly.

"So, Phineas," Isabella said, "How about you? Did _you_ like it?"

He glanced at Ferb, then back at Isabella. He shrugged. "Actually, yes. Yes I did."

They were both stunned by his candid answer, which puzzled Phineas immensely. "What? You asked, and I answered. What's the big deal?"

Ferb shook himself out of his surprised state and his face reverted to its normal level of stoicy. "Nothing, Phineas, nothing."

Then he smirked a bit, as if something had just occurred to him. "Well, we shouldn't keep Dad waiting," he said, turning back to the station wagon. He paused before entering. "And I'm sure you two want to get back to cuddling."

Isabella blushed heavily at this and avoided Phineas' eyes, which made him confused. _What's the big deal? All Ferb said was that..._ he trailed off as something occurred to him. He hastily climbed into the car and leaned forward near the front to ask his dad a question

"Dad, can I use your phone for a minute? I just want to see something."

"Oh, sure thing," Lawrence said. "Just make it quick, because I want to hit the road again soon." He handed over his smartphone to Phineas, who took it and immediately turned it on. After a few moments of waiting the home screen popped up, and Phineas wasted no time in opening the dictionary app.

He typed in the word 'Cuddling' into the search box, and immediately the results popped up.

_**Cuddle - Verb [with obj.] - To hold one close in one's arms as a way of showing love and affection.**_

For a few moments Phineas just sat their, unable to believe what he was seeing on the screen. A rereading assured him that those were, in fact, the words that he was seeing.

_Wait, WHAT? As a way of showing love and affection? Love and affection? But that means ... _He gulped and looked at Isabella, who was currently sitting close to him. VERY close to him, in fact.

He rapidly looked back at the screen, dearly hoping that she wasn't noticing how red his face was turning. Now he knew why Izzy had been embarrassed. A thousand things should've been running through his head, but he was only able to form one coherent thought:

_This is going to be a __**very **__long ride..._


End file.
